Drained: For Those Who Feel Sick

Despite what seems to be my best efforts, I rarely get sick. Probably, only once a year, and boy is it a rough one. There have been multiple times that I have felt like I can’t even climb into bed and simply fallen asleep on the floor. Other times, it has been a struggle to go to work and make it through the day. Whatever ailment, I have faced, anytime I have felt sick, I have felt drained like there is nothing left in me.

In a holistic sense, our physical bodies are tied to our emotional and spiritual well-being. When one is sick, the other two suffer similarly. Sin, similarly, is a sickness that runs rampant and was invited in to stay within us. It has caused the decay of not only our souls but the world we live in. The world aches and we alongside it. Yet, in the midst of our sickness came the Great Physician who heals and restores the sick and drained.

“A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.””‭‭Mark‬ ‭2:1-5, 15-17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Imagine for a moment, you are the men who lowered their friend through the roof or that you are the man himself. The stories have circulated regarding this man who had healed people in each town he went. As he sees the faith of the men, he looks at the paralytic and says, “Your sins are forgiven.” The expectations were probably different, but Jesus understood the greater needs of the people. We all are at the point of the paralytic where we are unable to move on our own, spiritually speaking. Yet, Jesus, our Great Physician, welcomed us to come closer in our sickness and receive healing, the true healing that restores our soul.

Only The Sick Need A Physician

It was later in the evening, when people began murmuring to themselves regarding the company that Jesus kept. Jesus ate with the mess of society; tax collectors, prostitutes, and the like. Even his “inner circle” of twelve disciples consisted of fisherman, zealots, and others who were remarkably considered undesirable. For whatever status they found themselves, they understood their position. They needed help. They needed healing. Contrasted with the Pharisees and the religious leaders of the day who all felt they were fine, the disciples knew that, without spiritual help, they were undoubtedly doomed.

The truth of the matter is that Jesus spent a similar amount of time with the Pharisees and Sadducees as he did with the prostitutes and tax collectors. Each group was deeply in need of the Great Physician to bring them healing and each group was seeking for restoration of their soul. Yet the Pharisees and Sadducees did not feel they were the sick. The same is true of us. We may feel we are spiritually fine or try and” heal ourselves” but all our effort will amount to nothing. Our very being is riddled with sin. It is not until we admit our sickness and bow before the Lord we will experience healing from our sickness.

The Great Physician’s Healing

Which brings us back to the man and his friends lowering him through the roof of a building. There was nothing that would stop them from chasing their Redeemer. For the man, this was the opportunity to be whole and to walk again. The sickness had drained him not only of his physical stamina, but had depleted his emotional well-being and shattered his soul of hope. In that moment, Christ forgave his sins. He ignored the obvious and dug straight at the soul. Sure, Jesus still healed the man of His paralysis in a miraculous display to the Pharisees, but the true gift was the forgiveness of sins. Where the world drained the man physically, emotionally, and spiritually, Jesus brought the man to wholeness.

Jesus sought out our healing. Where others would have given up on the sick and damaged, Jesus sought our own healing. The sin condition that had damaged the world we live in and severed our souls from God would be healed by Jesus Christ taking the fullness of our burden and sickness on Himself. The Great Physician would gladly bear our sickness in order to bring us to wholeness. Everyone bears a sickness until we are able to leave it at the foot of the cross. As Jesus took our sickness on himself, he filled us with His presence and took care of the consequences of our sickness. He is our Great Physician.